Farm Awn

Sometimes the strangest things come in the mail. 

A few days ago, we received a jar of peach jam from our mailman's wife in our mailbox, for example. Not that strange, really, considering I found out later that Carol had given him some raspberries. Plus we know them, they're neighbors. Sort of.

A few days after the jam appeared in our mailbox, we received a rather bulky mailing that caught my attention. This was not from any friend or neighbor, however. It was actually an advertisement for a new wheat variety. Here's what they sent: 

That's the unopened box. It's about the size of a box of greeting cards, or something similar. About like maybe three or four CD cases (remember those?!) stacked on top of each other. None of us were really sure what to expect on the inside...

But here it is:

Yes, that's a real, usable razor.

Those of you familiar with wheat and similar crops in terms of their plant anatomy might get the jokes at play here, but for the rest of you, I'll explain. (Don't worry-- I had to ask a few questions myself!)

The awn of a cereal grass plant, in this case, wheat, is that little stem-looking appendage that sticks out from the kernel. Sometimes this is also referred to as the beard. If you compare the upper image to the lower image, you can see that the wheat head has awn in the top image, but not in the bottom. This company sent us a razor to demonstrate that we should "shave the beard," or the awn, off our wheat by using their new awnless variety. By doing this, we will see higher yields thanks to better weed and disease fighting capabilities.

I do love a good pun, so in a way, I was entertained by this ad campaign, but in other ways, it made me think quite a bit, too. Aside from the overall absurdity and, in my opinion, excessive waste of the packaging of this marketing schtick (aren't we all just going to throw this thing away anyway?), I found the whole idea behind it thought provoking and warranting of a little further research.

It seems pretty clear that while the focus of the advertisement is trying to make you think that awnless wheat is inherently better and produces higher yields, but what it really is about is the system of wheat variety and chemical spray working together to eradicate weeds and other pests. Bottom line, this company is saying without really saying that if you buy this wheat, it works fantastic with their specifically formulated herbicide...which is where they really make their money.

I don't want to get into a debate on the benefits and detriments of spraying crop and/or chem fallow fields. There are benefits and detriments to cultivating weeds out with a plow as well, especially in our area, where dryland farming is the only option.

I will say that from what research I have done, it seems like the benefits of wheat being awnless in and of themselves are pretty minimal. I'll admit I'm not a crop scientist and my research was pretty minimal, however. What I did discover is that awnless wheat is easier for livestock to digest, which does apply to us because we graze our herd on crop stubble after harvest. Another benefit or use of awnless wheat I found is that it is apparently desirable for floral arrangements. Great. Again, I have extremely minimal experience with floral arranging, but I quite like the extra texture the wheat awns lend to a nicely curated bouquet.

I also learned that awn does assist in photosynthesis for wheat and especially barley. It's been a while since 10th grade Honors Biology, but it seems like photosynthesis is a pretty key function for any plant to thrive, so why would we want to remove something that helps with that process?

Most of all, I think Jeff and I are apprehensive of buying wheat varieties that might make us beholden to any certain company for numerous portions of the supply chain of crop inputs. That's what this advertisement is really about. Yes, it's a cute and kinda funny design that may get quite a few people turned on to this variety. To each their own. I'm not about to tell another farmer how they should run their operation. But, I do think that with this advertisement, and many others, for many other types of products, it's important to do a little research and make your own educated decision to buy the products that are best for you, if any.

Farm Awn.